Stelis micacea Luer & Hirtz 2002 SECTION Stelis

TYPE drawing by Carl Luer

Common Name The Tiny Bit Stelis [refers to the small plant habit]

Flower Size .08" [2 mm]

Found in Pastaza, Napo, Morona-Santiago and Loja provinces of Ecuador at elevations of 950 to 2250 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm to cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, very slender ramicauls enveloped a tubular sheath and another at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, subacute to obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer and fall on an erect, peduncle .4" [1 cm] long, from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul, rachis .4 to .8" [1 to 2 cm] long, subflexuous, distichous, congested, successively 2 to 3, several flowered inflorescence with large, oblique, acute, dilated, longer than the ovary floral bract and carrying flowers with purple or yellow, glabrous sepals, purple, transversely semi-lunate petals and a purple, thick, subovoid lip.

"The species is distinguished by the minute, caespitose plant with elliptical leaves longer than the ramicauls and a minute, closely subflexuous raceme about twice as long as the leaves. The sepals are broadly ovate and the lip is concave and obtuse anteriorly with a rounded callus on the dorsum continuous with the gklenion as seen in Stelis globulifera." Luer 2002

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV A First Century of Stelis of Ecuador Luer 2002

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV A First Century of Stelis of Ecuador Luer 2002drawing fide;

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